2.2. The list of present damages outlined by the United Nations panel — melting ice caps
and rising sea levels, stressed water supplies, heat waves and heavy rains — the
risk if humanity does not figure out how to curb the use of fossil fuels that have
provided the lifeblood for economic development.
(A) deteriorated (B) abolished (C) underscored (D) compressed

3.3. According to Dr. Yunus, poverty means being deprived of all human value. He regards
micro-credit both as a human right and as an effective means of from poverty.
(A) emerging (B) prevailing (C) indulging (D) imploring

5.5. The CWB said that this monsoon from the northeast was powerful, and people,
especially the elderly and patients who suffer from diseases, should be more
careful about their health.
(A) cardamom (B) careen (C) carabineer (D) cardiovascular

6.6. After a drunken brawl, I heard the wail of the ambulance sirens and I saw them putting
a man into the ambulance, trying to him, and driving away.
(A) ransack (B) reprieve (C) replenish (D) resuscitate

10.10. There are many gifted teachers who are not just animated interpreters of complex
concepts and theories, but able to their students into grappling with the issues
for themselves.
(A) extort (B) galvanize (C) purge (D) ostracize

11. As recently as a decade ago, farms in the Midwest were commonly marred — at
least as a farmer would view it — by unruly patches of milkweed amid the neat rows of
emerging corn or soybeans.
Not anymore. Fields are now planted with genetically modified corn and soybeans
resistant to the herbicide Roundup, allowing farmers to spray the chemical to eradicate
weeds, including milkweed. And while that sounds like good news for the farmers, a
growing number of scientists fear it is imperiling the monarch butterfly, 11
spectacular migrations make it one of the most beloved of insects — “the Bambi of the
insect world,” as an entomologist once put it. Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed, and
their larvae eat it. While the evidence is still preliminary and disputed, experts like Chip
Taylor say the growing use of genetically modified crops is threatening the
orange-and-black butterfly by depriving it 12 its habitat.
The major evidence that monarch populations are in decline comes from a new
study showing a drop over the last 17 years of the area occupied by monarchs in central
Mexico, where many of them spend the winter. The amount of land occupied by the
monarchs is thought to be a proxy for their population size. “This is the first time we
have the data that we can analyze 13 that shows there’s a downward trend,” said
Ernest H. Williams, a professor of biology at Hamilton College and an author of the
study along with Dr. Taylor and others. The paper, published online by the journal Insect
Conservation and Diversity, 14 the decrease partly to the loss of milkweed from
use of “Roundup Ready” crops. Other causes, it says, are the loss of milkweed to land
development, illegal logging at the wintering sites in Mexico, and severe weather. The
study does not suggest the monarch 15 extinct. But it questions whether the annual
migration, the impetus for butterfly festivals around the United States and waves of
tourism to Mexico, is sustainable. 【題組】11. (A) whose (B) which (C) what (D) where

16.(B) Vacations were once the prerogative of the 16 few, even as late as the 19th
century. Now they are considered the right of all, except for such unfortunate 17 as,
for example, the bulk of Bangladesh’s population, for whom life, 18 sleep and
brief periods of rest, is uninterrupted toil.
Vacations are more necessary now than before because today the average life is
less well-rounded and has become increasingly compartmentalized. I suppose the idea of
vacations, as we conceive it, must be 19 to primitive peoples. Rest of some kind
has of course always been a part of the 20 of human life, but earlier ages did not
find it necessary to organize it in the way that modern man has done. Holidays and feast
days were 21 .
With modern man’s increasing tensions, with the 22 quality of so much of
his work, this break in the year’s routine became steadily more necessary. Vacations
became 23 for the purpose of renewal and repair. And so it 24 that in the
Unite States, the most self-indulgent of nations, the tensest and most compartmentalized,
vacations have come to take a 25 place in domestic conversation.
【題組】16. (A) gluttonous (B) untouchable (C) disadvantaged (D) privileged

41.Traveling through the Ecuadorian Amazon to gather material for his book Savages,
author Joe Kane came across a determined priest, a Spaniard who had spent years
teaching a tribe of hunter gatherers, the Huaorani, how to survive outside their rainforest
habitat. They have to learn this world, the priest insisted. The lessons are hard, but they
must be learned. “Why?” Kane asked, “For the petroleum companies will end their life
as they know it. Of that there is no doubt.”
Savages, published in the U.S., Canada and England last fall and soon to be released
in Europe, is the story of how the Huaorani have fought to avoid that fate - to preserve
their land and ancient culture from destruction by oil companies rushing to extract the
black gold beneath the forest. As the reader quickly guesses in this compelling tale, it is
not the Indians that Kane regards as savages.
Though he is obviously an environmentalist as well as a journalist, Kane has written
more than a save-the-rain-forest polemic. Rather, it is a sometimes comic adventure in
which the author sets out to answer the question that has puzzled oil companies and
ecologists alike: Who are these Huaorani? In the course of finding out, Kane spent many
days being soaked by the constant jungle rains and bitten by countless insects. He
contracted a rash of fungal infections and during one expedition nearly starved to death.
He grew inured to Huaorani food, including smoked howler-monkey arm and the tribe’s
version of chicha – manioc that has been chewed, spat into a bowl and left to ferment
into an alcoholic drink.
For all the hardships Kane endured, he found the Huaorani a charming people. Once
an extremely war-like people, they have fought off every effort to “civilize” them,
beginning with incursions by the Incas. But modern opponents are craftier than any Inca
warrior. They are the smooth-talking government officials and company executives who
try to convince the Huaorani that oil can be sucked from under the tribal homeland
without doing any damage.
Kane befriended half a dozen tribal leaders, and together they launched a protest
campaign to prevent the Maxus Energy Corp. of Texas from building a new oil road
through the heart of Huaorani territory – a cause that was taken up by environmental
groups across Europe and the U.S. But with Ecuador deep in debt and dependent on oil
revenues for more than half its foreign exchange, the government could not be pressured.
At the time of Kane’s last postscript, oil drilling was proceeding apace, and most of the
Huaorani leaders had gone over to the other side; they were on the petroleum companies’
payrolls.
【題組】41. According to the author, Kane went through all of the following hardships
EXCEPT ?
(A) building roads (B) starving (C) catching disease (D) eating strange food

45.【題組】45. Which of the following is NOT true?
(A) The priest Joe Kane came across was a Spaniard, who had spent years teaching the
Huaorani.
(B) Kane and some tribal leaders launched a protest campaign to prevent the Maxus
Energy Corp. of Texas from setting up a new company.
(C) Kane is an environmentalist as well as a journalist, traveling through the
Ecuadorian Amazon to gather material for his book Savages.
(D) Ecuador was dependent on oil revenues for more than half its foreign exchange,
but was still deep in debt

46.Small talk is casual conversation that on the surface seems inconsequential.
Happening almost everywhere, it can take place between people who do not know each
other well and involves short conversations about common interests. Shoppers may use
small talk to pass the time while waiting in line to purchase their goods, or a hairdresser
might keep up a steady conversation of small talk with client whose hair is being styled
at the beauty salon. In a restaurant, a savvy waitress hopes that small talk will help forge
a connection with satisfied diners who will then leave a large tip. Co-workers may
exchange a few words about the weather at the water cooler. The most common venue
for small talk, however, is probably a party or social gathering, where it is used to strike
up conversations with strangers. In such situations, a person might even move around the
room to take part in small talk with other attendees. Engaging in small talk behavior is
also known as “mingling.”
Although the topics may be insubstantial, the act of engaging in small talk can
actually be extremely significant. In many situations, small talk fills uncomfortable
silences, setting people at ease. Through small talk, people become acquainted with each
other, exchange information, and learn what the other does for a living or participate in
for leisure. In ascertaining a sense of each other, people discover common ground.
Indeed, small talk is essential to developing relationships. It is the match that lights the
fire of friendship.
The functions and appropriateness of small talk vary by culture. Suitable topics for
small talk are universal. For example, in American culture, questions about personal
income are not acceptable, but in Malaysia, salary inquiries are a normal part of small
talk. In the United Arab Emirates, where female family life is extremely private,
questions about a person’s wife or daughters are off limits. In many cultures, formal
business meetings begin with a certain amount of small talk, and how long the small talk
lasts will depend on the culture. In a business meeting in Turkey, small talk precedes any
business discussions because business relations built on personal rapport and friendship
are deemed essential to doing business. Germans, however, tend to consider small talk a
waste of time in business meetings and prefer to get right to the point of the meeting.
Small talk is normal in many situations and actually necessary in some, where not
to engage in small talk is considered rude. For instance, it is terribly impolite to sit alone
in a corner at a party or not to exchange a few pleasantries with someone who has just
been introduced. Many people, however, disdain small talk as phony, dull, or trivial.
Their attitude is interpreted to mean that they are not interested in another person and
that they are too busy and important to invest time in getting a sense of the other person.
Yet it does not take a lot of time to establish meaningful connections with people through
small talk.
Another reason the art of small talk is vitally important is that subtle message
conveyed are often essentially more powerful than those sent during rehearsed, formal
presentations, such as speeches. Hence, this proves why adeptness at a small talk can be
crucial in making good first impressions. Adept small talk can be the difference in
determining, for instance, whether a person is successful in a job interview. When faced
with two candidates of comparable academic qualifications and professional ability, the
hiring manager is more likely to choose the candidate who creates a positive impression,
establishes fantastic rapport, and creates a comfortable interaction, which good small talk
can do.
Effective interpersonal communication depends in part on excellent
conversational skills, which are founded in the capacity for engaging in small talk. A
documented study in the early 1990s of Master of Business Administration (MBA)
graduates showed that, a decade after graduation, the successful graduates were those
adept at conversation. They could present superbly in front of audiences, talk to virtually
anyone, and make people feel at ease. Oral communication skills are one valuable key to
success.
【題組】46. According to the information in paragraphs 1 and 2, the subject of small talk .
(A) merely passes time and has no noteworthy function
(B) can be controversial if the person speaks in a polite manner
(C) is less important than the actual small talk itself
(D) depends on an already established relationship to be successful

47.【題組】47. In paragraph 2, the writer compares small talk to a match in order to .
(A) illustrate how small talk is of brief duration
(B) demonstrate how insignificant small talk is in a relationship
(C) show that small talk can be heated
(D) emphasize how it can be the means by which a friendship gets its start

48.【題組】48. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the
underlined sentence in the passage?
(A) Small talk is the only way to build personal rapport in Turkey.
(B) In turkey, small talk establishes personal bonds that are important in business
dealings.
(C) Small talk is actually the only means of conducting business in Turkey.
(D) Turkish executives like to engage in small talk because it makes business more
personal.

49.【題組】49. What can be inferred about job interviews from the passage?
(A) Being the successful candidate is matter of luck.
(B) Engaging in small talk with the interviewer can increase one’s chances of success.
(C) It is important for the job seeker to determine whether the interviewer distains
small talk.
(D) Being skilled at small talk is more important than having the proper job
qualifications.

50.【題組】50. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true about small talk?
(A) Some cultures do not have a tradition of small talk.
(B) Small talk plays a significant role in many different relationships.
(C) The importance of small talk lies in its functions rather than in its context.
(D) Small talk can vary in its use and subject matter according to culture.